Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Mind Your Language & a Glossary

Mumbai is truly the melting pot of
many cultures and languages. When Mumbaites speak Hindi, it may not necessarily
be understood in Hindi-speaking states. That’s because Mumbai’s Hindi has
borrowed quite heavily from Marathi and Gujarati languages. For instance, onion
is known as pyaaz in Hindi but in Mumbaiyya Hindi it is known
as kaanda which is actually a Marathi word. Similarly, aloo
is called as batata and matar is called as wataana.
Last year, when checking out vegetables in preparation for Onam, I was at pains
to explain the vegetables I needed for aviyal and erisseri to the colony
vegetable seller. Eventually, I went to INA Market, the haunt of Mallu nurses
from the neighboring AIIMS and Safdarjung hospitals, for all those “odd &
different” vegetables we use in our curries. Now, a visit to a South Indian store - Rama Stores and the INA Market is a much needed feature just before Onam and Vishu for that essential stock up.

We seem to be the only
un-Northernized South Indian family in our area. A week after I first
checked with the vegetable vendor, he turned up at my door with a bunch of
plantains (not nendrakaaya) saying
that he knew that we “Madrasis” use this vegetable. The minute the door closed,
my husband and I couldn’t help laughing aloud. We were sure this vendor was
thinking – what kind of people we were who never bought anything that he was
selling, but who asked for stuff he never carried. We used to ask him for raw
plantains, white gourd, pumpkin, drumsticks, and most of all - curry leaves.
Getting curry leaves, an absolute staple of south Indian cooking, was a trying
experience in Delhi. It took us a few months to settle down on a strategy to
source curry leaves. Some of our neighbors had the curry leaf plant in their
houses - I wonder why because they never used it in their cooking. We used to
ask our maids to stealthily flick a few shoots of curry leaves for us,
especially when it was dark. Our vegetable seller too did that for us a few
times. That these could get caught in the stealing act made us anxious. Neither
of us could muster the courage of doing it ourselves. Realizing the stress
building on us, we decided to make it a last resort kind of option; we opted to
get our dear curry leaves from Bangalore and Mumbai. So, whenever my husband travelled
to Bangalore, he would get a bunch from Thoms Bakery, right opposite to his company
guest house in Frazer town. Often it used to get scrutinized at the airport
security check. From Mumbai, my mother carefully broke off sprigs from the
plant in the society garden, packaged it nicely like a bouquet, and packed it
into my husband's bag. I then wiped it with a dry cloth and packed it tightly
in a plastic bag and stored in the refrigerator and it lasted weeks together
till the next trip came up.

Over the period we discovered that
some of these vegetables that we yearned for was available seasonally at some
places. These vegetables fell in between the two extremes- the staple Northie
vegetables (like aloo, matar, gobhi, gajar, mooli, etc.) on one end and specialty
vegetables (like mushrooms, broccoli, baby corn, red & yellow bell peppers,
spring onions, etc.) at the other end. The former was available
everywhere, the latter was available at all upscale markets, but the middle was
the problem. In business terms, it neither had the popularity nor the business
potential in an area like ours. Discovering some of these vegetables gave us
serendipitous joy; buying them was an educative experience. These vegetables
were called by names we had never heard of and the word we had defiantly
assumed to be the Hindi names were so different here. Like eggplant and brinjal
or okra and lady fingers.

To transfer the learning and for
fun, I thought of putting together this glossary of vegetable names across four
languages.

English

Hindi

Mumbaiyya

Malayalam

Onion

Pyaaz

Kaanda

Savalla ulli

Potato

Aloo

Batata

Urllakizhangu

Yam / Elephant’s Foot

Jimikhand

Suran

Chenna

Red Pumpkin

Sitaphal

Bhopla

Mathanga

Ash Gourd / White
Pumpkin

Petha

Safed Bhopla

Kumbalanga

Drumstick

I continue pointing to
it than ask the name

Shengha

Muringakaay

Ivy Gourd

Tindora / Kundru

Tendli

Kovakai

Snake Gourd

Chichingaa

Padval

Padvalanga

Sweet Potato

Shakkarkand

Ratallu

Mathirakizhangu

Long Yard Beans

Lobia

Chawli

Payar / Achingya

Bottle Gourd

Lauki / Ghia

Dudhi

Churaka

Beetroot

Chhakundar / Beet

Beet

Black eyed peas

Lobia

Chawli

Vellutha payar

Sugar

Cheeni

Shakkar

Panjasaara / Pansaara

Life is a
learning process and so is this list, I will keep updating it as I know more
and better.